The Axis
It can be imagined, the axis. The imagined line connecting the two poles of planet Earth, for instance.
Because it is around this real or imagined axis that the globe turns, with all its troublesome and uplifting events. Sometimes the planet even aligns itself along the axis — although the axis itself stands a little crooked. Like all of us.
So the axis is something good, something to orient yourself by. Yes? Well, I can’t pull an X or a Y over on you. That equation you’ll have to work out yourself. Many axes feel right at home in mathematics. And because axes are so shamelessly comfortable there, they put ordinary people in situations that make both the head and the cerebellum smoke. Numbers get replaced by a Y or even an X, interrupted by brackets, just to hold the whole thing together. Mathematicians call this strange contraption of letters and numbers simply: the formula.
Formula 1, Formula 2, a formula for everything. Counting helps.
Ever since mathematics — and algebra in particular — confronted me with formulas, I’ve had a strange relationship with the axis. And with formulas. Yes, I could make things easier for myself and start with the coordinating.
I beg your pardon? Easier? My life WAS easier, before I met an axis that introduced itself as part of a coordinate system. I could imagine nothing — absolutely nothing — of what that meant. Or perhaps I simply didn’t want to. Oh, how I longed for real problems — the schoolyard, lunch, rain. All of it better than formulas. Those things can jolly well sort themselves out. Without me!
Mathematicians aren’t the only ones who cast a crooked light on the axis for me. Politicians are quite fond of a skewed axis, too.
What on earth possessed George W. Bush to work a phrase like “the Axis of Evil” into his speech? With that, he showed the world where “evil” was crouching. The speech after 9/11, in January 2002. His axis points an imaginary middle finger at Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. That was probably the beginning of the formula for stirring up the world in the Middle East. But Bush isn’t the whole story.
When a topic revolves around an axis, or even lies along the same axis — well, suddenly the debate has structure. The axis is connecting, after all, when it runs between two points. It’s easy to find your bearings along an axis. And when the axis links two opposing forces, tension builds.
And right after that, another formula.
Where exactly is my own axis of life? First of all, my axis doesn’t lie still — it moves. Mostly along with me. My personal imagined axis is loaded with thousands of stories. I call it “the axis of experience.” And in its essential points, my axis is somewhat more positive. On my axis, people are milling about — some looking in the same direction, and some wanting exactly the opposite.
And this axis needs no formula. No brackets, no X, no Y.
Just two points — and the path between them.
